Happy Holidays!

Dear friends and families,

This term, in IPC it has been all about Houses and Homes. The children have been honing their design, architecture, and construction skills through a range of activities. The children looked at different types of buildings around the world and discussed how climate and natural surroundings effects the buildings and homes people live in. They produced posters about fascinating and unusual places to stay such as treehouses, under waterfalls and ice hotels. They were historians, who looked at how cities have changed and modernised over time, making timelines to illustrate this. They discussed how sometimes people move house and the reasons why, including how some people are forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in other countries.  Our budding artists learned how to draw from a one-point perspective with a vanishing point and learned about, then designed a traditional South African Ndebele house.

In literacy the class have been delving into the wonderful world of Oliver Jeffers through the beautifully illustrated picture book: What We’ll Build. This story centres around a father and daughter as they set about laying foundations for their life together: the book deals with big themes such as building a future, creating memories to cherish and a home to keep them safe and love to keep them warm. Using the book as a springboard, the children discussed their hopes and dreams for the future, the things that help them feel safe and happy and how to build bridges, not walls.  They made dioramas about places that are special to them and then wrote songs about these spaces based on the tune Our House by Crosby, Stills and Nash. They wrote their dreams for the future and affirming comments of things they like about themselves. They researched famous activists and politicians who had brought about change and built bridges and promoted harmony and wrote about how they brought about changes to our modern-day society!

After the Autumn break there were some hellos, and goodbyes. Firstly, we welcomed a new child to our class- Taeyoon who has joined us from South Korea. We are loving getting to know him and are enjoying his contributions to our little community. Secondly, we waved goodbye to our friend Laura, we wish her well on her new adventures in the US- she will be much missed! We also said goodbye to Ms Regina, our classroom help and support this term. We wish her well as she returns to Spain to continue her studies- thank you for all you've done for the class Ms Regina!

We ended the year with our Christmas show. It was a big success, the children looked great and enjoyed it a lot. A performance to be proud of. Thanks to all the parents who supported us, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

With that, we wish you all a wonderful and fun-filled holiday.

Erica and Anelda